Often in manufacturing processes, a material, or a portion of a material needs to be removed before further processing steps can occur. Such material removal can be referred to as “skiving.” Various methods of skiving or material removal are known in manufacturing processes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,496 discloses a mechanism for skiving fuser rollers using skive assemblies including elongated, thin, flexible members that scrape material from the fuser apparatus roller. An air plenum with a nozzle arrangement provides positive airflow to ensure that the fuser apparatus roller is fully stripped. The skiving assembly as described in this patent scrapes the material away, and any remaining material is removed by airflow from the nozzle.
It has been shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,532,810; 5,589,925; and 6,029,039 that elongated skive fingers of limited flexibility mounted in particularly configured support bodies substantially prevent damaging flex of the skive fingers. In these skive mechanisms, the support bodies support a major portion of the skive fingers and pivot into engagement with the fuser roller to limit skive finger flexing when engaged by a material to be skived, typically from a roller. The skive fingers can be retractable to prevent damage by jammed materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,202 discloses a technique for selectively applying materials in a pattern by spraying and then collecting the excess materials using adjustable skive manifolds on each side of the spray pattern, which function to vacuum off the edges of the airless spray pattern. The system utilizes a robot manipulator, a masking tool assembly, and other hardware, to recover material sprayed and skived by the masking tool assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,030 discloses a fuser station with a vented skive assembly for an image-forming machine. The image-forming machine has a photoconductor, a primary charger, an exposure machine, a toning station, a transfer charger, and a vented fuser station. The fuser station may include a pressure roller, a fuser roller, and a skive assembly. The skive assembly has rib sections forming one or more slots, which are configured to provide an airflow pattern to reduce condensation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,141 discloses fabrication of lightweight semiconductor devices including removal of a substrate from a support member utilizing a beam of radiant energy. The substrate is skived from the support member without damage to the semiconductor device. This method can be implemented on a continuous, roll-to-roll basis wherein the substrate and support member each comprise an elongated web, and wherein the webs are continuously advanced through a plurality of deposition chambers and the skiving area.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,469,757 discloses a technique for selectively removing a liquid crystalline material layer from a multi-layered substrate. The liquid crystalline material was coated and dried on the substrate, then a nozzle tip was used to remove the liquid crystalline material from the substrate, as it was moved on a rotating drum past the nozzle in a batch process. To remove all the desired material using this nozzle, multiple nozzle passes may be needed, prohibiting roll-to-roll processing. It has been found that harder materials, for example, cross-linked materials, cannot be skived with this process.
It would be advantageous to have a means of removing any amount of material, from a portion of a layer to more than one layer of material, in a batch or a roll-to-roll (continuous) manufacturing process. Further, a method and apparatus capable of removing materials of varying hardness, for example, solvents (including water), metal, gelatin, liquid crystal, polymers, ceramics and pulp, is desirable.